Occult osteomalacia amongst healthy and pregnant women in Pakistan.

A survey has been carried out on 206 healthy Pakistani women attending with their sick children at the paediatric outpatients department and 252 pregnant Pakistani women near term attending the antenatal clinic of the Karachi Prosgraduate Medical Centre. 12-6% of helathy women and 33% of pregnant women had biochemical abnormalities in serum calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase which were corrected with subsequent administration of vitamin D. The absence of clinical disease has been ascribed to the supplementation received through the ultraviolet irradiation of the skin.